Madden 21 Review: Should You Buy? Ultimate Team Spoils Score

The Madden 21 free trial period has ended, now that the NFL transitioned to Week 2. I’m here to give you my Madden 21 Review. I was surprised with what was found in Madden 21, in both good and bad ways. Today I’m going to give you my review by highlighting game modes within Madden 21 and giving you the good, the bad, and the ugly, as well as if you should buy the game.

Face Of The Franchise

The face of the franchise stunk. A bland storyline, an awkward “Iconic 40-yard dash”, which is a cutscene with a predetermined time based on your position, and not much more.

Devin Wade is no longer in the game. Madden’s not such a subtle continuation of the story is, and it isn’t pleasant.

Bring back the randomness, and running the 40-yard dash, and having actions with consequences. Bring back the bench press or Madden Superstar Mode from the 2000s. Hiring an agent, the training camp drills, bring back the Madden of old because Madden in 2006 is better than Madden in 2020, which makes no sense.

Ultimate Team

Same old same old. I’ve already told you the issue with Ultimate Team, and it somehow got worse. Not only is it the same cookiecutter, copy, and paste casino that promotes child gambling and preys on the lack of self-control children have, some micro-transactions COST MORE THAN THE ENTIRE GAME.

Look, I understand that Ultimate Team is nothing more than a cash cow that EA uses to fill their pockets. But when does it stop? Ultimate Team is nothing more than a casino, and a very crappy one at that.

The Yard

I’m not going to be too critical of The Yard because it’s an exciting game mode made to be the Madden equivalent of The Park in NBA 2K. However, who is this mode for; It’s not Ultimate Team, and it’s not real football. This mode is new, and I feel it is getting a lot of hype because of the “Wow, this is new!” factor. At its core, it’s not that interesting, isn’t real football, and doesn’t make a ton of sense. Madden can’t have a MyPlayer/The Park mode like in NBA 2K; it just doesn’t make sense in football. Backyard football with equipment doesn’t look right. I’m not saying it’s a terrible mode. I’m just saying the concept doesn’t make sense. EA has done an excellent job introducing the mode; the idea doesn’t work.

Franchise Mode

Ah yes, time to look at what EA has done with the core game mode of their game and what they have the EXCLUSIVE NFL license for. In terms of franchise mode features, there’s nothing new. The November update will make or break franchise mode for this year. As for the presentation, they’ve made some minor improvements. The pregame for franchise games is much improved. Starting quarterbacks get an actual pregame preview, and they create highlights of the two teams playing each other, a typical highlight being a team’s running back trucking an edge defender from the other team. The home team coach excites his team before kickoff, players are running through the tunnel, and some individual players get their intro screen. I like the improved visuals, and it helps with immersion. The major downfall is a lack of new features, and this isn’t a surprise.

Overall I’m disappointed with Madden 21. We’ve been calling Madden in past years “a step in the right direction,” but we’ve seen nothing from it. It’s time to stop saying it’s a step in the right direction and time to say that they have been wasting our time and have not been fulfilling their license. Don’t buy the game; save your money.

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